Indigenous Baul Fraud, Indigenous Identity Theft!
https://lineagebaul.blogspot.com/2025/02/indigenous-identity-theft-indigenous.html
https://lineagebaul.blogspot.com/2011/10/allen-ginsberg-his-baul-guru-nabani-das.html
Exposing Generic Baul: The Erasure of a Living Lineage
If anyone truly understands the history behind the Beats in India, it is Babu Kishan (Krishnendu Das).
Yet today, commercial stage performers routinely hijack Babu Kishan's lived experiences. By stripping his name from his own history, they talk about Baul in vague, generic terms—a calculated strategy that represents the modern cultural appropriation and commercial dilution of our heritage. These generic claims are amplified on social media by performers chasing viral fame with purchased engagement.
Stripping the Names, Stealing the Poetry
Modern stage actors—both men and women—frequently make sweeping, anonymous declarations: "Bauls did this, Bauls did that." They sing songs without crediting the actual authors—because they are singing Babu Kishan's original poetry.
They take his decades-long personal encounters with figures like Bob Dylan, Allen Ginsberg, and his grandfather, Nabani Das Khyapa Baul, strip away the names, and rebrand the tradition under the fictitious title of "Baul Masters."
THE ANATOMY OF LINEAGE ERASURE
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1. STRIP THE NAMES 2. MAKE IT GENERIC 3. FABRICATE A LINEAGE
Remove Babu Kishan & Claim "nobody wrote the Invention of "Baul Masters"
Purna Das Baul's identity. poetry" to erase authorship. & fake ancestral lineages.
The factual record stands clear:
The Beat Generation: Babu Kishan is the only Baul who shared a close, personal friendship with Allen Ginsberg spanning decades. He is explicitly recognized on both Bob Dylan's and Allen Ginsberg's official archives because he knew them personally. Allen Ginsberg only wrote a Baul poem for him in honour of his Grandfather Nabani Das Khyapa Baul.
Indian Cinema & Composition: A certified, university-educated music composer, Babu Kishan worked in Indian Cinema for over 40 years—collaborating directly with legendary icons like Lata Mangeshkar and her family. He does not rely on manufactured credits to prove his credentials as a filmmaker and composer.
An Accomplished Poet: Babu Kishan has written thousands of original poems that have been converted into Indian Folk, Cinema, and Baul compositions. Modern performers regularly sing his catalog while hiding behind the claim that "no one knows who wrote these songs."
The Myth of the "Wandering Minstrel" and Fabricated Footprints
Before modern performers began claiming "lineage," no one in the commercial performing space ever discussed it. Now, constructing synthetic lineages to compete with the 13-generation Birbhum line has become standard practice.
These actors retrace Babu Kishan's historical steps around the globe, claim that "Bauls have always traveled the world," and adopt every design innovation he introduced—right down to the custom patchwork dress he designed.
The Historical Reality of Global Baul Travel:
Rural Bauls historically did not travel internationally.
It was this singular family that first brought Baul out of the villages of Birbhum to the rest of India.
This family brought Baul to the international stage in the 1950s.
Only after this primary line opened global doors were other performers invited along.
Today, commercial actors continually alter their narratives—shifting from "Buddhist Bauls" to full-painted "Vaishnava Bauls"—making up stories as they go while profiting from an exoticized, generic brand.
Archival Evidence: Asia Society India (Mumbai, August 2, 2008)
The following archival event report documents Babu Kishan's recognized authority as both a scholar and performer bridging the Beat generation and authentic Baul heritage:
BEATS IN INDIA — AN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE Asia Society India, Mumbai — August 2, 2008
Deborah Baker’s A Blue Hand: The Beats in India follows Allen Ginsberg and his companions as they travel from the ashrams of the Himalayan foothills to Delhi opium dens and the burning pyres of Benares. In their restless, comic, and often tortured search for meaning, the Beats looked to India for answers while India looked to the West. A Blue Hand is the story of their search for God, for love, and for peace in the shadow of the atomic bomb. It is also a story of India—its gods and its poets, its politics, and its place in the American imagination.
Deborah Baker is the author of a Pulitzer-finalist biography, In Extremis: The Life of Laura Riding. She moved to Calcutta in 1990 and studied Bengali to write A Blue Hand. Since then, her essays have appeared in a range of publications from The New York Times to The Statesman.
The program included a panel discussion moderated by Prabodh Parikh, a Gujarati poet, short fiction writer, and visual artist, with panelists Adil Jussawala, author of two volumes of poetry (Land’s End and Missing Person), and Jerry Pinto, a Mumbai-based poet and journalist whose published works include Surviving Women (2000) and a poetry collection, Asylum (2004).
The panel discussed literary style as well as Ginsberg's subsequent influence on Indian poets. Baker told the audience she had written A Blue Hand because she wanted to explore the role India plays in the American imagination.
The evening concluded with a presentation of Baul songs by Babukishan Baul (the son of Purna Das Baul). Babukishan has a Master's degree in Indian Folk Music and comes from a traditional Baul folklore family.
He has performed internationally with musicians like Ravi Shankar, Bob Dylan, Zakir Hussain, and Miles Davis. The Bauls are widely known as wandering minstrels and poets from rural Bengal, who travel from place to place rendering their mystic songs, dancing, accompanied by their one-stringed instrument called the ektara.
— Reported by Angeline Thangaperakasam, Asia Society India
